PEMRA Chairman Absar Alam presided over the 136th meeting of the Authority Tuesday, which approved the request of M/s INDIGO Entertainment (Pvt) Ltd, Lahore with regard to grant of landingrights permission for the foreign satellite TV channels “Fight Sports” in Sports category and “Dreams Works Animation” in Children category.

The Authority has also approved restoration of two Satellite TV Channels namely, “Business Plus” and “Zaiqa TV” which it had earlier suspended due to the licensee’s failure to clear outstanding dues before the deadline. The channels were restored after the management agreed to pay off all the outstanding dues on time.

The Authority further discussed the various cases of PEMRA pending in courts and appreciated its legal wing and the committee’s integrity and active role in pursuing these cases in a professional manner.

Later, PEMRA has directed the private TV Channel, KTN Entertainment, to air apology on or before December 15, 2017 for airing indecent content (unethical dialogue) in its drama serial titled “Dardan jo Darya”. The content aired on Nov 1, 2017 was offensive and against the commonly accepted standards of decency.

After airing of the content, PEMRA had issued a show cause notice to the channel on Nov 13, 2017 directing the channel to explain its position in writing as well as appear for personal hearing on or before Nov 20, 2017.

Later, after hearing the representative of the channel and analysing the written reply, it was found that the channel had aired the above-mentioned content in violation of Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015.

On account of airing the content and thus violating the Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015, the channel has not only been asked to apologise, but it has also been directed to appoint an In-House Committee to monitor the content and to provide the details to PEMRA within two weeks.

In case of repeated violation of similar nature or on non-compliance of the Authority’s decision, PEMRA will proceed against the channel under its relevant laws.